6. Of Simulation and Dissimulation

DISSIMULATION is but a faint kind of policy, or wisdom; for it asketh a strong wit,
and a strong heart, to know when to tell truth, and
to do it. Therefore it is the weaker sort of politics,
that are the great dissemblers.

Tacitus saith, Livia sorted well with the arts of
her husband, and dissimulation of her son; attributing arts or policy to Augustus, and dissimulation to Tiberius. And again, when Mucianus
encourageth Vespasian, to take arms against Vitellius, he saith, We rise not against the piercing
judgment of Augustus, nor the extreme caution or
closeness of Tiberius. These properties, of arts or
policy, and dissimulation or closeness, are indeed
habits and faculties several, and to be distinguished. For if a man have that penetration of
judgment, as he can discern what things are to
be laid open, and what to be secreted, and what to
be showed at half lights, and to whom and when
(which indeed are arts of state, and arts of life, as
Tacitus well calleth them), to him, a habit of dissimulation is a hinderance and a poorness. But if
a man cannot obtain to that judgment, then it is
left to bim generally, to be close, and a dissembler.
For where a man cannot choose, or vary in particulars, there it is good to take the safest, and wariest way, in general; like the going softly, by one
that cannot well see. Certainly the ablest men
that ever were, have had all an openness, and
frankness, of dealing; and a name of certainty and
veracity; but then they were like horses well
managed; for they could tell passing well, when to
stop or turn; and at such times, when they thought
the case indeed required dissimulation, if then
they used it, it came to pass that the former opinion, spread abroad, of their good faith and clearness of dealing, made them almost invisible.

There be three degrees of this hiding and veiling of a man's self. The first, closeness, reservation,
and secrecy; when a man leaveth himself without
observation, or without hold to be taken, what he
is. The second, dissimulation, in the negative;
when a man lets fall signs and arguments, that he
is not, that he is. And the third, simulation, in the
affirmative; when a man industriously and expressly feigns and pretends to be, that he is not.